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arXiv:1204.0352 · Physical Review A

Optimizing the catching of atoms or molecules in two-dimensional traps

Vijay Pal Singh, A. Ruschhaupt

Published Oct 24, 2012• 3 citations
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Abstract

Single-photon cooling is a recently introduced method to cool atoms and molecules for which standard methods might not be applicable. We numerically examine this method in a two-dimensional wedge trap as well as in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. An element of the method is a small optical box with ``diodic'' walls which moves slowly through the external potential and catches atoms irreversibly. We show that the cooling efficiency of the method can be improved by optimizing the trajectory of this box.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.043834

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Single-photon cooling is a recently introduced method to cool atoms and molecules for which standard methods might not be applicable. We numerically examine this method in a two-dimensional wedge trap as well as in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. An element of the method is a small optical box with ``diodic'' walls which moves slowly through the external potential and catches atoms irreversibly. We show that the cooling efficiency of the method can be improved by optimizing the trajectory of this box.
Single-photon cooling (SPC), noted for its potential as a versatile method for cooling a variety of atomic species, has recently been demonstrated experimentally. In this paper, we study possible ways to improve the performance of SPC by applying it to atoms trapped inside a wedge billiard. The main feature of the wedge billiard for atoms, also experimentally realized recently, is that the nature of atomic trajectories within it changes from stable periodic orbit to random chaotic motion with the change in wedge angle. We find that a high cooling efficiency is possible in this system with a relatively weak dependence on the wedge angle and that chaotic dynamics, rather than a regular orbit, is more desirable for enhancing the performance of SPC.
We propose a general method to cool the translational motion of molecules. Our method is an extension of single photon atomic cooling which was successfully implemented in our laboratory. Requiring a single event of absorption followed by a spontaneous emission, this method circumvents the need for a cycling transition and can be applied to any paramagnetic or polar molecule. In our approach, trapped molecules would be captured near their classical turning points in an optical dipole or RF-trap following an irreversible transition process.
We propose a cooling scheme for realizing single-photon sideband cooling on particles trapped in a statedependent optical potential.We develop a master rate equation from an ab initio model and find that in experimentally feasible conditions it is possible to reduce the average occupation number of the vibrational levels in one dimension by more than 90% by applying a frequency sweep on the cooling laser that sequentially cools all the motional states.Notably, this cooling scheme works also when a particle experiences a deeper trap in its internal ground state than in its excited state, a condition for which conventional single-photon sideband cooling does not work.In our analysis, we consider two cases: a two-level particle confined in an optical tweezer, and Li atoms confined in an optical lattice, and we find conditions for efficient cooling in both cases.The results from the model are confirmed by a full quantum Monte Carlo simulation of the system Hamiltonian.Our findings provide an alternative cooling scheme that can be applied in principle to any particle, e.g., atoms, molecules, or ions, confined in a state-dependent optical potential.
Established optical cooling methods, employed in such traps as magneto-optical traps and optical molasses, work by means of a closed optical transition involving the absorption and spontaneous emission of large numbers of photons by each atom. This technique, therefore, cannot be extended to species-such as molecules-which, in general, do not have closed optical transitions. Finally, the lack of any requirement for having a closed optical transition implies that this method for cooling atoms may also be applicable to cooling molecules.
We implement and demonstrate the effectiveness of a cooling scheme using a moving, all-optical, one-way barrier to cool a sample of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms, achieving nearly a factor of 2 reduction in temperature. The one-way barrier, composed of two focused, Gaussian laser beams, allows atoms incident on one side to transmit, while reflecting atoms incident on the other. The one-way barrier is adiabatically swept through a sample of atoms contained in a far-off-resonant, single-beam, optical dipole trap that forms a nearly harmonic trapping potential. As the barrier moves longitudinally through the potential, atoms become trapped to one side of the barrier with reduced kinetic energy. The adiabatic translation of the barrier leaves the atoms at the bottom of the trapping potential, only minimally increasing their kinetic energy.